1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thin film magnetic head and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a combination or composite or hybrid type thin film magnetic head constructed by stacking an inductive type thin film writing magnetic head and a magnetoresistive type reading magnetic head one on the other. The present invention also relates to a method of manufacturing such a thin film magnetic head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently a surface recording density of a hard disc device has been improved, and it has been required to develop a thin film magnetic head having an improved performance accordingly. In order to improve a performance of a reading magnetic head, a reproducing head utilizing a magnetoresistive effect has been widely used. As the reproducing magnetic head utilizing the magnetoresistive effect, an AMR reproducing element utilizing a conventional anisotropic magnetoresistive (AMR) effect has been widely used. There has been further developed a GMR reproducing element utilizing a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) effect having a resistance change ratio higher than the normal anisotropic magnetoresistive effect by several times. In the present specification, these AMR and GMR reproducing elements are termed as a magnetoresistive reproducing element or MR reproducing element.
By using the AMR reproducing element, a very high surface recording density of several gigabits per a unit square inch has been realized, and a surface recording density can be further increased by using the GMR element. By increasing a surface recording density in this manner, it is possible to realize a hard disc device which has a very large storage capacity of more than 10 gigabytes and is still small in size.
A height of a magnetoresistive reproducing element is one of factors which determine a performance of a reproducing head including a magnetoresistive reproducing element. This height is generally called MR Height, here denoted by MRH. The MR height MRH is a distance measured from an air bearing surface on which one edge of the magnetoresistive reproducing element is exposed to the other edge of the element remote from the air bearing surface. During a manufacturing process of the magnetic head, a desired MR height MRH can be obtained by controlling an amount of polishing the air bearing surface.
At the same time, a performance of a recording head has been also required to be improved. In order to increase a surface recording density, it is necessary to make a track density on a magnetic record medium as high as possible. For this purpose, a width of a pole portion at the air bearing surface has to be reduced to a value within a range from several micron meters to several sub-micron meters. In order to satisfy such a requirement, the semi-conductor manufacturing process has been adopted for manufacturing the thin film magnetic head. One of factors determining a performance of an inductive type thin film writing magnetic film is a throat height TH. This throat height TH is a distance of a pole portion measured from the air bearing surface to an edge of an insulating layer which serves to separate electrically a thin film coil from the air bearing surface. It has been required to shorten this distance as small as possible. Also this throat height TH is determined by an amount of polishing the air bearing surface.
FIGS. 1-13 show successive steps of a known method of manufacturing a conventional typical thin film magnetic head. This magnetic head belongs to a combination type thin film magnetic head which is constructed by stacking an inductive type thin film writing magnetic head and a magnetoresistive type thin film reading magnetic head one on the other.
At first, as illustrated in FIG. 1, on a substrate 11 made of a hard non-magnetic material such as aluminum-titan-carbon (AlTiC), is deposited an insulating layer 12 made of alumina (Al.sub.2 O.sub.3) and having a thickness of about 3-10 .mu.m. Then, as depicted in FIG. 2, a bottom shield layer 13 constituting a magnetic shield for protecting the MR reproducing magnetic head from an external magnetic field is formed to have a thickness of about 2-3 .mu.m on the insulating layer.
Then, after depositing by sputtering a shield gap layer 14 made of an alumina with a thickness of 100-150 nm as shown in FIG. 3, a magnetoresistive layer 15 having a thickness of several tens nano meters and being made of a material having the magnetoresistive effect, and the magnetoresistive layer is shaped into a desired pattern by a highly precise mask alignment.
Next, as represented in FIG. 4, a shield gap layer 16 having a thickness of about 100-150 nm is formed such that the electro-magnetic layer 15 is embedded within the shield gap layers 14 and 16.
Then a magnetic layer 17 made of a permalloy and having a thickness of 3-4 .mu.m is formed as shown in FIG. 5. This magnetic layer 17 serves not only as an upper shield layer for magnetically shielding the MR reproducing element together with the above mentioned bottom shield layer 13, but also as a bottom magnetic layer of the inductive type writing thin film magnetic head to be manufactured later. Here, for the sake of explanation, the magnetic layer 17 is called a first magnetic layer, because this magnetic layer constitutes one of magnetic layers forming the thin film writing magnetic head.
Next, as illustrated in FIG. 6, on the first magnetic layer 17, a write gap layer 18 made of a nonmagnetic material such as alumina to have a thickness of about 150-300 nm, and then an electrically insulating photoresist layer 19 is formed on the write gap layer 18, said photoresist layer 19 being shaped into a desired pattern by means of a highly precise mask alignment.
Next, a first layer thin film coil 20 made of, for instance Cu is formed on the photoresist layer 19.
Next, as depicted in FIG. 7, an electrically insulating photoresist layer 21 is formed on the thin film coil 20 by a highly precise mask alignment, and then a surface of the photoresist layer 21 is flattened by baking it at a temperature of, for instance 250.degree. C.
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 8, on the thus flattened surface of the photoresist layer 21, a second layer thin film coil 22 is formed. Then, a photoresist layer 23 is formed on the second layer thin film coil 22 by a highly precise mask alignment, and a baking process is conducted again at a temperature of, for instance 250.degree. C.
A reason for forming the photoresist layers 19, 21 and 23 by a highly precise mask alignment is that the throat height TH and MR height are determined with respect to edges of these photoresist layers on a side of the pole portion as will be explained later.
Next, as shown in FIG. 9, a second magnetic layer 24 made of, for instance a permalloy is selectively formed on the write gap layer 18 and photoresist layers 19, 21 and 23 such that the second magnetic layer has a thickness of 3-4 .mu.m and is shaped into a desired pattern.
The second magnetic layer 24 is brought into contact with the first magnetic layer 17 at a position remote from the pole portion, and therefore the thin film coil 20, 22 pass through a closed magnetic yoke structure constituted by the first and second magnetic layers. The second magnetic layer 24 includes a pole portion which defines a width of a track on a magnetic record medium. Furthermore, an overcoat layer 25 made of an alumina is deposited on an exposed surface of the second magnetic layer 24.
Finally, a side wall 26 of an assembly at which the magneto-resistive layer 15 and gap layer 8 are formed is polished to form an air bearing surface (ABS) 27 as shown in FIG. 10. During the formation of the air bearing surface 27, the magnetoresistive layer 15 is also polished to obtain an MR reproducing element 28. In this manner, the above mentioned throat height TH and MR height MRH are determined by the polishing. In an actual manufacturing process, contact pads for establishing electrical connections to the thin film coils 20, 22 and MR reproducing element 28 are formed, but these contact pads are not shown in the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 10, an angle .theta. between a straight line S connecting side edges of the photoresist layers 19, 21 and 23 isolating the thin film coils 20, 22 and an upper surface of the second magnetic layer 24 is called an apex angle. This apex angle .theta. is one of important factors for determining the performance of the thin film magnetic head together with the throat height TH and MR height MRH.
Furthermore, as shown in the plan view of FIG. 12, a width W of the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24 is small. A width of tracks recorded on a magnetic record medium is determined by said width W, and therefore it is necessary to make this width W as small as possible in order to realize a high surface recording density. It should be noted that in the drawing, the thin film coils 20, 22 are denoted to be concentric for the sake of simplicity.
As explained above, in order to improve the surface recording density on the magnetic record medium, it is necessary to improve a performance of the thin film recording magnetic head comprising the first and second magnetic layers 17 and 24, gap layer 18 and thin film coil 20, 22. In the combination type thin film magnetic head having the reading magnetic head using the magnetoresistive element and the thin film recording magnetic head stacked one on the other, it is necessary to improve the performance of the writing magnetic head as well as the reading magnetic head.
In order to improve the performance of the writing magnetic head, it is important that the throat height TH and apex angle .theta. shown in FIG. 10 should be formed accurately such that they are not deviated from desired design values. However, in the known manufacturing method, it is difficult to control these parameters precisely and to manufacture the magnetic head in accordance with desired design values. That is to say, the throat height TH is defined by a distance from the air bearing surface 27 to an edge of the insulating layer 19 for isolating the thin film coil 20, 22, said edge opposing to the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24. However, in an actual manufacturing process, a position of said edge of the insulating layer 19 could not be clearly defined, and the air bearing surface 27 is polished on the basis of a throat height zero position defined by the edge position under an assumption that said edge of the insulating layer 19 would be formed at a desired position. During the formation of the thin film coil 20, 22, the heating process is carried out at about 250.degree. C., and the photoresist layer constituting the insulating layer is melt and a pattern of the insulating layer is varied. Therefore, a position of said edge of the insulating layer is deviated from a desired position, and thus a value of the throat height TH which corresponds to a length of the pole portion 24a and is determined by using a position of the edge of the insulating layer as a positional reference might be deviated from a desired design value. Particularly, when the photoresist layers constituting the insulating layers 19, 21 and 23 are formed to have a large thickness, said deviation in the pattern might amount to a very large value such as about 0.5 .mu.m. Therefore, a fine throat height TH of several microns to sub-microns could never be attained with a high reproducibility. Further, in case of using such a thick photoresist layer, a desired pattern might be deviated by an unevenness in a thickness. For instance, in a combination type thin film magnetic head for a high frequency, a throat height TH has to be made not larger than 1.0 .mu.m. The above mentioned deviation of 0.5 .mu.m is very large and a number of defective throat heights TH are produced to decrease a manufacturing yield and a manufacturing cost is increased.
During the above mentioned heating process, the photoresist film of the insulating layers 19, 21 and 23 is melt, and therefore a profile defined by side walls of these insulating layers as shown in FIG. 10 is varied and the apex angle .theta. is also varied. The apex angle .theta. influences the performance of the thin film magnetic head and the deviation in the apex angle might sometimes cause a defect in the property of the thin film magnetic head. In this manner, in the known method of manufacturing the thin film magnetic head, it is difficult to improve the performance of the writing magnetic head. Such a problem would be manifest in accordance with a progress in miniaturization of the thin film magnetic head.
The above explained demerit of the known method of manufacturing the thin film magnetic head is mainly due to the deviation in pattern of the photoresist film caused by the process of heating the photoresist film during the formation of the thin film coil 20, 22, but this process is inevitable for flattening the surface of the insulating layer and isolating the coil windings.
Furthermore, although the performance of the reading magnetic head can be improved by using a GMR reproducing element having a high sensitivity as the magnetoresistive element, in order to further increase a surface recording density, it is necessary to manufacture the magnetic head such that the MR height MRH defined by a height of the element measured from the air bearing surface 27 should not be deviated from a desired design value. In an actual manufacturing, the MR height MRH is determined by an amount of polishing the air bearing surface 27 like as the throat height TH, and this polishing is carried out while a position of the edge of the insulating layer is used as a positional reference. Since a position of the edge of the insulating layer is varied by the heating process as stated above, the MR height MRH is also varied and could not be formed to have a desired design value. Therefore, a manufacturing yield is decreased by the variation in the MR height MRH, and a manufacturing cost is increased.
Particularly, in a combination type thin film magnetic head including the writing magnetic head and the reading magnetic head having the magnetoresistive element stacked one on the other, a balance between the throat eight TH of the writing magnetic head and the MR height MRH of the reading magnetic head has to be taken into consideration. These two factors are determined by a positional relationship of the insulating layers 19, 21 and 23 made of photoresist, a precision in the mask alignment of the MR reproducing element and a precision in the polishing process for forming the air bearing surface. Therefore, a pattern alignment of the insulating layers 19 and 21 with respect to the MR layer 15 should be carried out with a minimum error. However, although this error could be minimum, there is still an error due to the deformation in a pattern of the photoresist which constitutes the insulating layers 19, 21 and 23 isolating the coil windings of the thin film coil 20, 22 by the heating process, and thus the throat height TH and MR height MRH contain an error. Then, a balance between the writing magnetic head and the reading magnetic head is broken and it is no more possible to manufacture a combination type thin film magnetic head having a superior performance.
Moreover, as can be seen from FIG. 11, if a width of the first magnetic layer 17 and a width W of the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24 near the air bearing surface 27 differ greatly from each other, there might be produced a leakage of a magnetic flux called a side fringe magnetic flux. Particularly, in the combination type thin film magnetic head having the recording thin film magnetic head and the MR reproducing head 28 formed integrally, the first magnetic layer 17 also serves as the magnetic shield for the MR reproducing head, a width of the first magnetic layer has to be inherently larger than a width W of the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24, and therefore there might be induced a relatively large side fringe magnetic flux. When such a side fringe magnetic flux is produced, an undesired side write phenomenon might occur and an effective width of a record track is increased. In accordance with a recent progress in the high surface recording density, a track width has been shortened. but when the above mentioned side write occurs, there might be produced a cross talk between adjacent tracks as well as an accidental erase of a magnetization pattern recorded in adjacent tracks, so that a sufficiently high surface recording density could not be realized.
In order to solve the above problems, there has been proposed to construct the trim structure by forming a protruded portion 17a in the first magnetic layer 17 as shown in FIG. 13 and this protruded portion is formed to have a width identical with a width of the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24. Such a solution has been described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publications, Kokai Hei 7-220245, 7-225917 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,747), 7-262519 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,747) and 7-296331.
Upon forming the protruded portion 17a in the first magnetic layer 17 shown in FIG. 13, in order to match a width of the protruded portion to a width of the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24, after forming the pole portion of the second magnetic layer, an ion beam etching, for instance an ion milling is performed while the pole portion of the second magnetic layer is used as a mask to remove the gap layer 18 and a portion of the first magnetic layer 17 is removed over a part of its thickness, for instance over about 500 nm. However, an etching rate of the ion milling for an alumina constituting the gap layer 18 is low such as about 30 nm/minute, and therefore a long processing time is required and a through-put is liable to be decreased.
Furthermore, an etching rate of the ion milling for a permalloy constituting the second magnetic layer 24 is high such as 200 nm/minute, and thus a thickness of the second magnetic layer 24 has to be larger by considering a reduction in thickness during the etching process. The second magnetic layer 24 is formed by a plating, and therefore if a thickness of the magnetic layer is larger, it is required to use a thick photoresist film which is used for forming the pole portion 24a in accordance with a given pattern. When a thickness of the photoresist film is large, it is difficult to narrow a width W of the pole portion 24a, and a pole portion having a width of an order of sub-micron meters could not be formed any more.
In order to form the protruded portion 17a having the same dimension as that of the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24 by etching the gap layer 18 and first magnetic layer 17 with the ion milling, while the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24 is used as a mask, an ion beam has to be made incident substantially at right angles. However, the ion milling is performed at right angles, debris of etched material might adhere to side walls of the protruded portion 17a of the first magnetic layer 17 and pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24. By means of such adhered substances, the first and second magnetic layers 17 and 24 might be magnetically short-circuited and an effective track width might be increased. Therefore, the thin film magnetic head having a desired performance could not be attained.
The inventors have proposed, in a co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/087,973 filed on Jun. 1, 1998, a solution for mitigating the above mentioned problem of the undesired deposition of etched material. In this solution, the ion beam etching for digging a recess formed in the write gap layer over a part of the thickness of the first magnetic layer 19 is carried out from an inclined direction. However, in this case, a side wall of the pole portion 24a of the second magnetic layer 24 might be also etched and a width of the pole portion might be decreased. Then, a desired magnetic property could not be attained.